Hello guys, and I am back with a another review relating to My Hero Academia! Now like I said in my review of season 2 this post will actually be concerning the feature length movie that came out back in September of 2018. While I did not see it during its limited theatrical run I was still able to get the chance to see it a while back and I was always planning on reviewing it eventually as I go through my looks at the series in general. So when it comes to movies that are a part of a TV’s shows continuities there are ones that strictly play to the devoted fan-base and don’t really reach out to an audience much larger than that or ones that are able to attract both the fans, and casual audiences who aren’t as familiar but can still find plenty of things to enjoy about it and the film in question is able to succeed as a stand alone movie. In the case of My Hero Academia Two Heroes, I would say its a bit more complicated than that for plenty of reasons. So without further ado, lets see what happens when All Might, Deku, and the class of 1-A hit the big screen!
Taking place some time between seasons 2 and 3, we start off with a big action sequence concerning a young All Might fighting crime in America while also establishing his relationship with his partner, David Shield. After that we cut to see him, and his pupil, Midoriya, traveling to I-Island which is an artificial island that is used perform research on quirks. They are there because Shield invited All Might and they soon meet up with him, and his daughter, Melissa (though Deku is not to tell them anything about them sharing One For All). Naturally, Deku gets along well with the young inventor and even runs into some of his fellow classmates who also just so happen to be on the island as well. Meanwhile David learns that All Might’s strength is weakening and he too is not sure how long he will be able to be the Symbol of Peace. But things start to take a turn for the worse however when a mysterious villain named Wolfram takes control of the security system and holds the residents hostage including All Might, and David. Now Deku, Melissa, and the rest of Class 1-A must work together in order to stop this chaos, and restore the island before its too late.
When it comes to these types of movies I look to see on how they work both as a stand alone feature, and as an extension of the show with this one mostly working as both. Sure it would help if you are a fan of the show, but this movie still succeeds at telling its own story that is pretty self contained, though with plenty of references to the events, and characters in the show. Heck there’s even a couple of flashback sequences, and a mini recap at the beginning to help fill in the gaps which while a little redundant (the show does like to do this often) still helps new comers understand the proceedings a bit more. That being said though the story in general is essentially Die Hard with super heroes with the whole big bad infiltrating a location holding a lot of people as hostages and its someones job to save the day and it mostly works with one twist in particular that was actually pretty surprising, and worked within the context of the story even if the rest of the proceedings is pretty standard stuff with a number of crowd pleasing moments that will certainly make fans happy. I will say though that it does suffer from a problem I see often in movies like this where it doesn’t really leave much of an impact on the show itself and is never mentioned which is a little bit annoying sometimes and with this movie in particular there are certain ideas/plot points that are introduced that are could very much change the course of the show, only for the movie to retcon them before the end (something I admittedly saw coming considering none of these elements are seen in the next seasons). However seen as an extension of the show it still is enjoyable and has that same tone as the series, balancing the more dramatic moments with the comedy very well and just like the show it also contains a good number of effective gut punches that makes us more invested. I also found some of the comedy here to really funny, in particular with the characters interacting with one another. Warts and all the story still contains what people like about the show and is pretty good as a stand alone film.
Another thing I look for in movies like these are if they are able to take advantage of the fact that they are feature length in terms of visuals, and production designs. Fortunately this one does succeed in that regard as while it does retain the visual trademarks of the show, it does feel like the animators did take advantage with a bigger budget. Now the characters still maintain their memorable designs from the show, yet the character movements looked noticeably smoother here and the backgrounds are a little varied as we have this artificial island as a backdrop, and one particular part of the movie where the heroes have to climb a tower that has different levels on it. But what really stood out here, were the action sequences which are even bigger in terms of scale and are pretty epic to watch unfold. It is in these scenes where we get to see each of the students here use their powers to take down the different henchmen, and security robots (this also leads to some amusing moments that fans like myself will appreciate) and there’s even a bit of computer animation used in certain sequences like the final battle. Speaking of which that is indeed a stand out moment as we get to see (spoilers) Deku, and All Might team up to take down Wolfram together by combining their powers and it made for an explosive treat for the eye and is once again pretty darn epic. I might also add that it is nice to see more of these two together and they have some nice inspirational moments together (even if I’d argue there wasn’t a whole lot added to Deku’s arc that wouldn’t be done later on in the series). We even get to see a glimpse into All Might’s past as a young hero in the prologue set in America (another stand out sequence involving him stopping a heist) and his relationship with David Shield is very well done with David sort of being the brains behind the duo. That makes the big twist all the more compelling as we see that David did what he did for All Might’s sake and it was interesting turn of events that made the character even more interesting. As for his daughter, Melissa, she also makes for another welcome addition to the franchise and stand out by actually being quirk-less just like Deku was yet just like him, she is still resourceful, smart, and passionate about what she wants to be and they made for a cute couple, and I do hope to see more of her, and her father in any later seasons. As for Deku’s classmates, the ones that do join him each have a moment or two to shine and mostly provide the bulk of the comedy more than anything else (Bakugo, and Kirishima are hilarious in their scenes together) though it was nice seeing them (as well as some of the others who make a cameo). Unfortunately though the weakest link of the cast is easily the villain, Wolfram which is a shame considering that A. if your going to go full on Die Hard, you should at least have a colorful/memorable villain like Hans Gruber, and B. when a TV show like this gets a movie, the villain should at least be something a little more major. That is sadly not the case as Wolfram is a very generic villain that fails to leave much of an impression despite a pretty cool design, and Keith Silverstein’s best efforts to give him some personality (watched the dubbed version and overall the voices were really good). He may be very powerful at the end but he really only exists to move the plot forward and in general he just didn’t do much for me. But hey at least the rest of the characters both old, and new get a lot more focus which is good.
I’d say Class 1 A’s big screen debut turned out to be a pretty successful endeavor. My Hero Academia Two Heroes is a pretty solid extension of the show that will please the fans with some exciting action, compelling themes, great animation fun comedy, more of the characters they love plus some new additions, and more, and is a decent film on its own terms as well. While far from perfect since the story is really just a riff on Die Hard, the villain is a let down, and it does suffer from problems present in other movies like it, as a fan I was satisfied with what was given. I do somewhat regret not seeing this on the big screen as it would’ve been neat seeing this with all of the fans, and maybe my grade is a bit higher because I am a fan of the series, but even then I still liked the final product and am looking forward to checking out its sequel as well. So now that we’ve gotten the movie out of the way, time to go look into the third season of the show which was a pretty big one so look out for that one coming soon.
Rating: B+
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